Alan Coetzer

Employee Perceptions of Their Workplaces as Learning Environments.

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to contribute to an understanding of how diverse groups of employees perceive their workplaces as learning environments, and to cast light on the learning processes of these diverse groups of employees.Design/methodology/approach – This study was designed to examine employee perceptions of: the extent to which their managers create conditions in the work environments favourable to learning and enact behaviours in one‐on‐one settings that are likely to foster learning; and their sources and methods of learning. Data were gathered from 464 employees in 31 small manufacturing firms through self‐completion questionnaires and analysed using descriptive statistics and t‐tests.Findings – Results for six demographic groups are presented to provide a comparative view of employee perceptions. The research found that the two comparison groups within three demographic variables (tenure, age, education) differed markedly in how they perceived their workplaces as learning enviro...

Business assistance for SMEs: New Zealand owner‐managers make their assessment

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the business assistance realities of New Zealand small and medium enterprise (SME) owner‐managers in order to better understand those experiences in terms of their ability to identify and use what is provided.Design/methodology/approach – Site visits were made to 51 small firms that had been recruited from a random sample of 500 New Zealand firms that employed up to 50 full‐time equivalent staff and were in the “manufacturing” or “service” sector. An interview was then carried out with the owner‐manager of the firm.Findings – The owner‐managers of some SMEs interact with the support infrastructure regularly, while others do not. The sources of business assistance most frequently accessed where not necessarily those that were subsequently perceived as being the most useful or significant.Research limitations/implications – The findings are limited in their generalisability due to the research methodology and research context. However, the conclusions will b...

Managers as learning facilitators in small manufacturing firms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe findings of an exploratory study, guided by the question: “What are the effects of managers on salient elements of work environments that have the potential to influence informal workplace learning?”.Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews with owner‐managers, managers, and employees in ten small manufacturing firms. Verbatim expressions of the interview participants were analysed using content analytic procedures.Findings – The ways managers intentionally promote learning were unveiled, including: providing access to a range of workplace activities; promoting communication in the workplace; facilitating access to direct guidance from workplace models; and designating learning facilitators. Informal employee practices used by managers seem to have unintended positive “side effects” on informal workplace learning.Research limitations/implications – Several questions are in need of further investigation. What are...

Employee learning in New Zealand small manufacturing firms

Purpose – The paper aims to explain specific actions managers could take to improve support for the learning of staff and increase staff satisfaction with workplace learning.Design/methodology/approach – The paper shows the data gathered from 464 employees in 31 small manufacturing firms through mail survey questionnaires and analysed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression.Findings – This paper shows that the learning potential of the work systems is constrained mostly by limited employee scope for action and enhanced mainly by wide task variety. Managers are failing to create some important facilitating conditions, such as providing incentives to learn and modelling influences. Workplace supervisors are providing only low levels of learning support and are not proactive in fostering the learning of their staff. Employee perceptions of specific work environment characteristics and workplace supervisor behaviours are significant influencers of satisfaction with workplace learning.Research lim...

Small enterprise relations with banks and accountants

Purpose – Through the dual analysis of small business‐owner relations with their banks and accountants, this paper aims to address conflicting interpretations of how small business owners may optimise their banking relationships.Design/methodology/approach – Site visits were made to 49 small firms which had been recruited from a random sample of 500 New Zealand firms that employed up to 50 full‐time equivalent staff. An interview was then carried out with the owner‐manager of the firm.Findings – The study identifies four bank relationship types: serial switching, independence, relationship chasing, and switched off. Consistent with previous research, dissatisfaction with existing relations is frequent but switching is infrequent. Rather than switch bank, the predominant reaction is to reduce the use of bank services. The disadvantage this creates is offset by the development of a closer relationship with businesss accountant.Research limitations/implications – The findings are limited in their ability to...